GOOD BUSINESSEditor: Congratulations on your cover story...

LETTERS

Editor: Congratulations on your cover story of Sept. 5 ["Out on Their Own"]. You presented to your readers very successful people who have "made it" in high unemployment and risky economic times.

Establishing your own business where you can control your own destiny . . . has been a very viable alternative to being unemployed or working in a company with a threat of losing your job. Your four examples show your readers and people all over the state of Maryland that there is hope and opportunity in being an entrepreneur.

Jules Shavitz

Co-Chairperson, Public Relations Jewish Center for Business Development

REMEMBER THE ANIMALS

Editor: Re Milton E. Wiley Jr.'s letter of Sept. 5 headlined "Meat vs. Vegetables," I hope that while he enjoys ribs he gives a few seconds to consider that what he enjoys were living creatures who were brutally slaughtered for his enjoyment.

And [that he gives] a few seconds to consider the brutally cruel experiments on animals, where death, when it finally comes, is a "blessing." And a few seconds to consider that Jonathan Swift may have had meat eaters in mind when he wrote he never wondered to see men wicked, but often wondered to see them not ashamed.

I know many vegetarians. Not one ever forces his "views on the masses," as Mr. Wiley wrote.

J. Small

Baltimore

GUILT TRIP

Editor: I would like to respond to the letter by Ms. Madigan and Ms. Bell ("When Pets Roam Free," Aug. 29, 1993) concerning essay "He Came, He Saw, He Conquered." Although I found their letter rather harsh and condemning of a fellow pet owner about whom they know little, I do agree with them that pet cats should be kept indoors or on a leash. In fact, the cats who have adopted us since Flounder Foote's demise have been made indoor cats for the very reasons they list.

As for Flounder Foote, he was killed in Southern California where there was no law concerning cats being kept indoors. We lived in the suburbs on a big corner lot overlooking a canyon, where Flounder Foote stalked mice and lizards and patrolled the yard against visiting neighbor cats who also roamed free. His original owners and I often talked about making him an indoor cat but neither they nor we were successful. He did condescend to coming indoors at night but demanded to be outside during the day. Now that we are East Coast city dwellers, we are much more resourceful about keeping our cats indoors, but it was difficult in Southern California, where the doors were always open and the climate was always temperate.

Ms. Madigan and Ms. Bell do not need to heap any more guilt upon my shoulders. I have played the "What if . . ." game concerning Flounder Foote many times over. But I do wonder . . . if I had succeeded in keeping him indoors, would I also have broken his special spirit?